Nike Lunar Swingtip: A hybrid golf shoe unlike any other

What do you get when you cross the surfer/skateboard culture with traditional golf footwear? The Nike Lunar Swingtip (think wingtip), a hybrid unlike any other.

Among those Nike leaned on for input were employees at its Hurley youth lifestyle brand in Costa Mesa, Calif. "The folks who work there are young, they're surfers, they play golf," Carl Madore, the designer of the Lunar Swingtip said. They also held focus groups that included everyone from high school and college golfers to seniors.

The upshot is a shoe that Madore said "is a mash-up of a golf silhouette with a bottom reminscent of a skate shoe. We like to use the word 'juxtaposition,' of the classic and forward thinking."

They come in leather ($160), suede ($140) or canvas ($130) and in 10 colors. All feature a wingtip upper and nubs -- or lugs, as Nike calls them -- on the sole for traction on the golf course.

Nike showed the Lunar Swingtip to some of its tour staff at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson in February. "Paul Casey was all over it," Madore said. "He wanted a pair right there to go to the driving range. Paul has a pair and has been practicing in them."

-- John Strege